Alcohol price rise: BYOB or OMG?

The Scottish Government, backed by Scottish Liberal and Conservative parties (with the Labour Party abstaining), has said that it is looking to set a new minimum alcohol price of 50p per unit. This would make the cheapest bottle of wine £4.50, while beer-drinkers could get a four-pack for no less than £3.52.

The new legislation is part of the UK’s attempts to reduce binge-drinking through increased pricing; Wales and England are looking at implementing new minimum price of 40p per unit.

It comes as around half of Scotland’s imprisoned criminals claim that they were under the influence when they committed their offence; a lesson we all learnt from the unfortunate case of the alcohol-induced pigeon-murder. It is estimated that Scotland spends over £3.6 billion annually on dealing with incidents relating to alcohol abuse.

Sheffield University’s alcohol research group calculates that the price rise will leave binge-drinkers spending around £120 more a year to sustain their average intake, while more moderate drinkers would spend only £8 more per annum. According to The Stand’s statistical calculations, this means heavyweights and rugby players will be spending a great deal more on drinks – tough break, guys.

Alexandra and Parker, prospective parents for the academic year 2012 told The Stand, “We are going to have to scale back our child-rearing plans. Brew our own wine and beer perhaps. What’s the world coming to when parents can no longer provide for their own family?!”

Our in-house economists have come up with this fresher-friendly table:

While the SNP push to save millions of pounds in the ‘battle against over-drinking’ in Scotland, alcohol retailers could make over a million pounds more each year from the new legislation, none of which will be put back into combating alcoholism. However, if the price-change were to fail to cut down drinking in Scotland over the next six years, the legislation will be scrapped – so if you keep emptying the shelves of Tesco, you could save money for your academic children when they become parents…

The Stand encourages responsible drinking.